Gratitude is a complicated thing, isn’t it? It’s easy to say “Thank you,” and move on. But are sentimentality and nostalgia really the same thing as deep, gratitude and thankfulness? And what is it that we are thankful for this time of year, anyway?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot this year. I’m reminded of how many times I have thanked God for the “blessings” in my life that are actually material things – a home, clothes, heat, more than enough food. And I certainly am grateful beyond measure for the comfort and good things I have been allowed to enjoy in this life. But, if on a deep and historic level, a significant part of my comfort has come from – and maybe even currently comes from – injustice inflicted upon others, is that really something to be thankful for, or repentant of?

I think there is room for both gratitude, and lament, in a heart and mind that is seeking first “the kingdom.” In fact, I suspect that any honest seeking of that kingdom MUST make room for the hard stuff, and not just the sweet stuff. This is one reason the Avett Brothers’ song “We Americans” keeps rising to the top of my personal list of what might end up being the best songs of 2019.

“Love in our hearts, with the pain and the memory.”

That’s the true human experience, isn’t it.

I was on a run yesterday, listening to this week’s True Tunes Gallery Stage Mixtape and singing (to myself) along with that song, when that refrain came along. Then the tears started. “Love in our hearts, with the pain and the memory.” According to the Bible, God can handle our bitter tears, or joyful celebrations, our unbridled worship and our most desperate doubt. But can we?

As we head into Thanksgiving, and then careen into another “Holiday Season” – full of political disappointments, cultural divides, commercialism, tribalism, church-ism… I hope and pray that the “still small voice” can cut through it all and remind us that Love is the greatest gift, and that the opportunity to be agents of that love in this desperate world, is one of the great and most exciting honors we can ever experience. There is no deeper way that this. It is so much deeper, in fact, than sentiments, affections, and “stuff.”

I hope you enjoy the mixtape this week. I hope you have good, reflective time. I hope Advent is a meaningful season of reflection and preparation for you. There is a light in the darkness. Kyrie Eleison!

-JJT